The essential Jewish values of tzedakah and mutual responsibility for fellow Jews were imbedded In American Jewish sensibilities from the very beginnings of Jewish settlement in the United States.

In 1654, Portugal had captured the city of Recife, in Brazil, from the Dutch after the later had ruled over the colony for two decades, allowing the Jews, during that period, to live without harassment. The small Jewish colony grew to almost 1,000 individuals, and became well off financially through the development of more efficient ways of refining sugar. A synagogue was built and the first rabbi to serve a congregation in the Western Hemisphere, Isaac Aboab de Fonseca, was brought over from Holland.

With the Portuguese re-conquest of Recife, the Jews were forced to leave. Some found refuge in nearby Dutch or English colonies, such as Curacao or Barbados. A group of Jews set sail to return to Holland, but were intercepted by pirates who robbed them of their possessions. Managing, in Cuba, to secure passage on the Ste. Catherine, twenty-three Jews reached the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, where two individuals of the group were temporarily put into debtors' prison, when the sale of the group's furniture did not bring in enough funds to pay the captain for their passage.

Even more disturbing was the attitude of the governor of New Amsterdam, Peter Stuyvesant, who, in his letter to the Dutch West India Company seeking permission to deport the group, characterized the Jews as a 'deceitful race, hateful enemies and blasphemers'. However, on the Board of Directors of the Dutch West India Company were a number of Jews who undoubtedly were concerned about the fate of their brethren and who were able to influence the Company to compel Stuyvesant to allow the Jews to remain 'provided that the poor among them.... be supported by their nation'. And so it was - Jews across the ocean dedicated themselves to helping their fellow Jews in the New World and Jews in that world took responsibility for their own struggling community.

During the Revolutionary War, one of the main financial supporters of the American rebels was Hayyim Solomon, a Polish Jew who lived in Germany before coming to a land in which he immediately joined the side of the Patriots. He brokered bills for the Americans, sold bonds, and made funds available to James Madison for a period of several months. During the war, there is a story that during one of the winters, when George Washington had so little funds available at Valley Forge there was the possibility that his army would begin to desert. General Washington sent an urgent message to Hayyim Solomon who was in the synagogue because the day was Yom Kippur. Solomon, it is said, stopped the service and asked for financial help for the troops. Could this have been the first Yom Kippur appeal in American Jewish history!?

Perhaps the most outstanding model of tzedakah in the Colonial and post Colonial eras were the Touro brothers. Both made their fortunes in shipping in New Orleans. Abraham Touro returned to New England, where he continued to prosper. He was instrumental in providing the money, together with his brother, Judah, to complete a monument marking the site of the first battle of the Revolutionary War at Bunker Hill and in helping to erect the first synagogue in the United States that is still in use at its original site, the Touro synagogue, where their father had served as spiritual leader.

Judah Touro was even more outstanding. Remaining in New Orleans, he amassed a great fortune for his time. His giving included not only synagogues and Jewish institutions but civic and religious organizations as well. He also collaborated with Sir Moses Montefiore in establishing one of the first set of dwellings outside the walls around the Old City of Jerusalem, now known as Mishkenot Sha-a-nanim.

The Jews of colonial America, although not remarkable in numbers, did establish in this new country, the elements of tzedakah, responsibility and unity that have marked American Jewish life and American life for over the past 350 years.

Abraham J. Gittelson, is now the Senior Consultant for the Orloff Central Agency for Jewish Education of Broward County in South Florida, having served as Executive Director for over 20 years. He has been involved in almost every aspect of Jewish Education, with his present activities being focused on adult Jewish education in a variety of settings throughout the Eastern section of the United States and on Caribbean cruises.